Long time air cooler user moving to water cooling for the first time

davetherave2

davetherave2

davetherave2

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So as title really. I have always been an air cooler user with my current cooler of choice being the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 for my i7-5820K (2011-v3).

As I am embarking on a new case for the first time in 13+ years from my cooler master stacker STC 101 (which has served me well for the last 3 builds) for the Lian Li O11 Dynamic Razer Edition I though it would be time to refresh my case and have been debating for some time over another full tower (something like the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 v2) but ended up picking the Lian Li as I liked the look and the branding to go with my other Razer stuff.

So as this case version is based on the more water cooling focused design as opposed to the air cooling version I thought it would be a good time to also throw my hat into water cooling.

So with the seemingly never ending supply of videos on youtube I have been investigating either an AIO or going the more expert route of building a custom loop.

As my experience with water cooling is next to zero I feel that an AIO is probably the way to go but which one? As this will be only cooling the CPU and not the GPU I feel that maybe a 360 rad solution is probably overkill for me but as I plan to upgrade from my current cpu to a new intel one at some point in the next 12 - 18 months I wonder if getting a 360 rad would be a better "futureproof" solution. Plus I'm not really planning on doing any overclocking.

If I did go down the custom loop route how easy are they to setup, maintain etc. I think I have looked at too many videos on the subject and just confused myself with all the various bits and pieces that are required for a build.

As my PC is on 24/7 I do need to ensure that I have reliable parts (I know things can fail) and as much minimal servicing as possible.

Although price for a solution isn't a "major" issue I don't want to spend money needlessly and would like to invest in something that will ideally last me several years.
 
If you don't mind tinkering and have the budget then I would always recommend custom water over AIO. Higher cost and slightly more learning curve (but barely) but much more options to customise, easily expandable, higher performance and more reliable. If you're new to water cooling then flexible tubing is arguably safer (more idiot proof for leaks) and definitely much easier to configure, although it won't look as nice.

If you have a high performance GPU (or plan to in future) then you'll want to consider water cooling it. The temperature drops over air when water cooling a GPU are huge compared to CPU. No air cooler, regardless of noise will come close to a full cover water block on a GPU.
 
Bugbait said:
If you don't mind tinkering and have the budget then I would always recommend custom water over AIO. Higher cost and slightly more learning curve (but barely) but much more options to customise, easily expandable, higher performance and more reliable. If you're new to water cooling then flexible tubing is arguably safer (more idiot proof for leaks) and definitely much easier to configure, although it won't look as nice.

If you have a high performance GPU (or plan to in future) then you'll want to consider water cooling it. The temperature drops over air when water cooling a GPU are huge compared to CPU. No air cooler, regardless of noise will come close to a full cover water block on a GPU.
Click to expand...

Well I currently have a 2080 RTX but don't plan on modding that due to it being a relatively recent purchase and the cost of replacement if anything goes wrong.

I was looking at the rigid tubing and although it looks nice I think as a first stab it is probably outside of my skill range currently so getting flexible tubing was the route I was would take should I go the custom loop option.
 
For redundancy you can always get 2 pumps as well if you go custom. Appreciate you not wanting to mod your GPU, it's a bit more involved for first time water. Maybe in a year or more when you get the itch :)
 
So I started to price up a custom solution and got as far as adding the pump, res and water block and that was close to £200 before I started to add in the rad, fans, tubing & fittings and liquid. I expected a custom solution to be a bit more pricier than an AIO but wow this is going to be expensive if I go all out for just a CPU loop. I was looking at mainly the EK stuff as it's a brand I have heard about so maybe that is priced a bit more on the high end of the custom building.

This is what I have priced up so far:


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £412.31
(includes shipping: £10.50)



​

I am still deciding on the fans at the minute as am I think having those as rgb will be "too much" if there is such a thing given the case will have it built in and the pump & block will have it. not sure on the fluid being purple as it looked different so may change that to a different colour.

My question is will this actually be a better cooling solution compared so say a corsair H150 i.e. will it actually give me double/triple the cooling performance based on the spend. I know I have picked many of the parts purely for the aesthetics which bumps the price up but when I add on 3 120mm fans that could be another 40- 50 pounds of cost to this project. .
 
If you are just cooling your CPU an AIO will be completely fine. Custom loop will be better though, and give you the option to expand it to your GPU too down the line.

The cost and amount of work required in building and maintaining a custom loop (cleaning parts, leak testing, replacing fluid every year etc etc) makes it an enthusiast hobby. You have to want to water cool because you enjoy tinkering. If you just want to build your PC and forget about it then AIO is the way to go.
 
If you stick with water + additive (silver coil, biocide, whatever...) or a clear premix then you can run the loop for years with little to no maintenance. I've gone 4 years with just de-ionised water and a kill coil. Only very minor silver particle build up on CPU block fins after that time. If you want colours and minimal maintenance then grab some coloured tubing. Or just stick with clear tubing and water with some bling bling RGB LED strips, that's what I've done. Coloured fluid looks great but adds to the maintenance overhead, sometimes by quite a lot especially if you decide to change the colour.

For the just CPU cooling a custom loop will only shave several degrees off from an equivalent (i.e. Same radiator) AIO. It's the other factors I mentioned earlier that are the advantages. For cheap and easy you're better off with AIO or good air.
 
Tbh there is not much difference between aio and a good air cooler apart from aesthetics and noise

The custom loop is a large upfront cost ( bought mine in nov last year) but they do last a long time and the main benefit is cooling the gpu as the boost clocks improve considerably.
 
So If I were to get the kit I outlined is there anything essential that I still need to include in my shopping cart. Although I will be using it for my current build CPU wise I may look to CPU/Mobo cooling as well at some point in future when I eventually upgrade to an 9 series cpu or beyond.
 
£70 for a CPU block? I have several that I have bought from China via eBay that cost under £20 and are surprisingly good. £150 for a pump/res is also really expensive. You can get a DDC for around £45 and a separate reservoir for also under £20. I bought EK Duraclear and regret it; discolouration and probable plasticizer build-up in my blocks etc. Get the mayhems. Barrow fittings would be around £3.60 each and are really nice. Rads are easy to find second-hand on here and other places.

Bottom line: buying new and all EK is a very expensive luxury route.
 
Yeah, get Mayhems Ultraclear if you're after clear tubing. Had mine for over a year and no plastiser leech. Quite bendy too for 13/19 tubing.

Rest is a personal choice. I have a tempered glass window so decent looking parts are important to me and I'll happily pay more for them (Monsoon compression fittings, etc.). If you don't care for all the shine then I would actually go for raw copper blocks, although they're harder to get these days (less popular I assume). No need to worry about plating flaking off.
 
For me the look is as important as it is for pricing. I know I could probably source a number of these parts (not EK made or go for different EK options) for less.

So as I liked the look of the EK Velocity which I know is part of their new quantum range so probably has the inbuilt price hike already in it I wanted to make sure that everything else would work together and happily and I was less likely to have issues.

I can then look at other EK blocks to keep everything in sync rather than buying a mis-mash of parts from different brands and putting it together (although some videos seemed to suggest sticking with the same brand for the majority of the parts). @MikeTimbers as much as I trust people on here offering decent looking kits in MM and have probably been looked after I would rather buy new than used - it's just a personal preference of mine.

I still have time to do some more research and come up with options before I need to make a final decision anyway as not sure when I will be getting my new case currently as it just states pre-order with no expected ETA yet.
 
I understand looks, I'm just saying that some of your parts are maybe overpriced? Barrow are every bit as good as EK - I know, I have both. I'm very disappointed with my Duraclear and will replace it soon with Mayhems. If you were doing hardline, I would completely agree with sourcing tube and fittings from the same company but with soft tubing it's much less of an issue.

You said in an earlier post "wow this is going to be expensive" or I would not have showed how you could save a lot of money. None of what I suggested is ugly by the way. YMMV
 
Well I am open to options I just started to look at things that would look good in the case as for the tubing and fittings I have no problems changing those out for something that is considered generally better for a better price.

As I have only ever air cooled and I would spend a decent amount on an air cooler hence the dark rock pro 3 on my current rig. It was getting to the price point where an AIO may have been a viable option when i did my last upgrade. As I feel this time moving to water cooling is probably the right option now and looking on what my needs are now and what they could be in 12- 18 months time I think a custom solution is a better option for me long term and I would rather spend once rather than twice and have enough scope to include a gpu loop into the solution at some point in the future.

I was just amazed at the price increase from air cooling (which i knew was going to be more anyway) which is what initially blew me away. I think unfortunately have expensive tastes for my tech and looks are as important when it comes to function.
 
davetherave2 said:
So If I were to get the kit I outlined is there anything essential that I still need to include in my shopping cart.
Click to expand...
Sundries are easy to overlook but will make life easier. Some very useful, some nice to have:

- fill bottle (very handy for filling loops neatly if it's inside your case)
- funnel (basically critical)
- tubing cutters (you can use good scissors but these give a nice square finish)
- pH testing paper if you're mixing your own fluid / going with water
- inline temperature sensor (as water temperature is an important variable versus just component temps)
- big bottle of distilled or deionised water for flushing and cleaning
- ball valve and maybe splitter block so you can drain your loop easily

Personally I was more confident using all new and same (established) brand parts for my first loop. I've since become more confident in myself to test and use other components be they second hand or from farther afield. I have heard bad things about EK's nickel plating from several sources though, especially when using a silver coil.
 
so this is basically what I ordered today (snapshot before I actually changed an item or two before ordering) :

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £517.50 (includes shipping: £11.10)

​


In also included the EK Electric purple pre-mixed fluid and changed the sata cables to be right angled cables in carbon to match the psu and pci cables.


I will look to see what else I may need when I get the new things and the new case and see if any angled fittings will help with fitting tubing better.


Again thank you all for the help with this endeavour I'll make sure to put up some pics of the build when I start it. ;p
 
EK Water Blocks EK-ATX Bridging Plug (24 pin)
WC-995-EK
£3 (incl. VAT)
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XSPC Heavy Duty Hose Cutter (0-25mm)
WC-341-XS
£7 (incl. VAT)
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EK Water Blocks EK-Cable Y-Splitter 3-Fan PWM (10cm)
WC-9AK-EK
£3 (incl. VAT)
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CableMod ModMesh SATA 3 Cable 30cm - Black
CM-15E-CM
£7 (incl. VAT)
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If it's still possible, I would strongly advise to switch the Duraclear for the equivalent size of Mayhems. My Duraclear has clouded within days of using EK Cryofuel and that means my blocks and pumps are filling with plastic as I write. The whole lot needs to come out and be replaced which will happen hopefully next week.
 
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